Check out what folks did in LA last night:
‘Thousands protest over Prop 8, LAPD on tactical alert,’ photo: Kevin Ballie, from the Blend piece linked below.
** San Francisco Prop 8 Protest •
Civic Center to Dolores Park •
Fri., Nov. 7th, 5:30pm **
**[Other gatherings planned up and down the state today — Mission Viejo, Palm Springs, Long Beach, Santa Barbara, San Diego — listed here.]
Even if I’m not up to writing much right now, and even if I have to be at home at sundown because I have two small children in need of dinner and baths and bed and my partner’s working the swing shift, I can very proudly pass on the news that the people aren’t taking this fundamental civil rights taken out of our hands and written out of the constitution by popular vote, with a narrow margin at that, all based on a campaign chock full of lies stuff lying down.
From “‘but we will soldier on.’ On Prop 8,” by theantidesi101 at Pam’s House Blend:
From the darkest moments of the LGBT rights movement have risen the greatest coming together of our community. If victories make us complacent, it is our defeats that rally us to a new level of community and activism. We stood up after mortal blows from Anita Bryant pushing her anti-gay vitriol in Florida. We rallied to the bedside of Matthew Shephard in his family’s time of tribulation. More recently, we re-committed our vows to protect our youngest members in the wake of the murder of Lawrence King by a fellow classmate. In the wake of the passage of Prop 8, we see now and will see another historic re-awakening of our community.
He embeds both photos and video and Maya Angelou’s “And Still I Rise.”
I’m just saying.
More coverage at Towelroad, “Thousands Join Marriage Equality Protest at L.A. Mormon Church.”, and The Advocate, “Prop 8 Protest Takes Over Los Angeles.” Both filed last night, 6 Nov. 2008.
L.A. Times photo gallery here.
IF YOU LIVE IN THE BAY AREA AND CAN COME:
** San Francisco Prop 8 Protest •
Civic Center to Dolores Park •
Fri., Nov. 7th, 5:30pm **
*[More here at Pam’s House Blend: “Lots of Prop 8 action.”
Such as, Melissa Etheridge getting all “Taxation without representation!” on us:
“Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.” She added at the end of her statement, “Come to think of it, I should get a federal tax break too.”.
From a piece Etheridge contributed today (7 Nov. 2008) to The Daily Beast: “You Can Forget My Taxes,” via Pam’s piece. I may have to go out and buy my very first Melissa Etheridge album.]
It makes me wish I could fly out and join in on the fight, but as I too have real world responsibilities, I watch from afar and send my support in any way I can.
I wish I could just post, I don’t know – a color, something other than words, of which I am fresh out. But when I try to think of a color all I get is white-hot rage. I am so barely able to be civil to people who seem to have no clue what this feels like. What 30+ years of this, in my lifetime, has felt like.
I’m sure I will be able to intellectualize some other position, eventually, and in the meantime am just trying to keep my commitment to non-violence. Thank you to all out there who can bear with us for the moment, and who are willing to stand with us in through the long fight.
Re: the SF protest march, Civic Center to Dolores Park, gathering at 5:30.
There’s a website for it: http://protest8.blogspot.com/.
Also there are a few comments on a post at the Protest 8 site wondering what the heck a protest would do (sway conservatives? ‘course not. bring about another vote in another 8 years? not the object.). Several commenters do a fine job of explaining the function of popular protest (indicate degree of strong opposition publicly. rally folks to keep up the fight.).
This never should have been up for a vote in the first place, so strong response to the outcome — to my mind — is part of a continued opposition to the protective function of the judiciary being circumvented by a majority vote (on the ballot due to paid signature gatherers, not due to grassroots sentiment), not just a sour grapes response to “the people’s will.”
We all full well know that if “the people” could vote at the time of Brown v. Board of Education, or Loving vs. State of VA, any other Black civil rights legal milestone, “the people” would have voted in exactly this way. It is one of the core narratives of civil rights movements, that the judiciary anticipates popular sentiment by a minimum of one, usually two decades plus.
We will be marching with you in spirit. My partner and I decided that we must become more active here in our own state with Freedom to Marry. We are sick and tired of the discrimation. Be safe, be well.
At least this week we made it more likely that the judiciary will eventually agree with us by electing a Democratic president rather than a Republican one.
I am sad to say I have stopped giving money to HRC or anyone else fighting this fight, because their tactics and strategy continue to not only fail, but increase resistance. Of course there would be resistance anyway, but if we had paid attention to strategy rather than principles, we wouldn’t have 39 states that now specifically discriminate against same sex marriage. If we would stop talking about “marriage” and start talking about legal and financial rights, we would get a lot further.
I am also sick to death of the disorganization of our efforts. The Obama campaign was successful in large part because it was possibly the most organized Democratic (or any other) campaign ever. If we learn from that exampel we might someday be successful.